Applying the ecosystem concept to tourism, conservation and
heritage management
The application of environmental management to tourism and heritage features has
grown since the 1970s (see Chapter 14 for further coverage). It has mainly involved
the application of impact assessment, eco-auditing and the exploration of sustainable
development strategies (Edington and Edington, 1986; Butler, 1991). Tourism and
heritage features management may be divided into: (1) natural history-oriented tourism
(environmental features may be the tourist attraction, but there may be little effort to
control impacts and limited investment in environmental management); (2) eco-tourism
(tourism based on visits to areas of unspoilt natural beauty or rich wildlife), which seeks
to minimise impacts and which invests a significant portion of profits into environmental
management; (3) tourism actively involved in assisting conservation or heritage management,
and/or gathering environmental information (e.g. tourists pay to assist on a wildlife
survey or archaeological dig).
Tourism often takes place in a sensitive environment: coastal zones; alpine areas;
coral reefs; and where walkers or off-road vehicles cause damage. The value of the
ecosystems approach is that it can highlight vulnerable features and threatening human
behaviour, which may be easily overlooked. For example, in parts of Australia and
South Africa there have been calls to cull sharks. Before doing so it would be wise to
study shark behaviour and role in the ecosystem to see whether their value outweighs
their threat, and also to check whether they move about so much that local removal
is pointless. Similar situations may arise in tropical rainforest environments where apparently minor disturbance of bird or bat roost sites might have serious regional
effects, through reduced pollination, seed dispersal or insect predation. Where Alpine
farmers turn to tourism and relax their management of summer grazing, the under-grazed
grass may fail to anchor winter snow and increase the threat of avalanche.
Tourism may become important as a means of financing and encouraging respect for
conservation, and of generating income for local peoples, and a way to help fund transition
to sustainable agriculture. Ecosystem management can help ensure that tourism
provides optimum support for conservation. Heritage sites can be established to conserve
cultural and natural features, including wildlife and old crop varieties in arboreta and
the gardens of large estates. In many parts of the world some of the last remaining
stands of ancient trees are found as sacred groves, around burial areas and in temple
gardens. There is a need to apply ecosystem studies to determine how such refuge areas
may be sustained and augmented. Caves are especially vulnerable: visitors can introduce
moulds and other organisms which damage delicate structures or fauna, and
ecologists can advise to help reduce these problems (Cigna, 1993).